A United Way grant has helped start Community Link, a free voice mail service that enables “phoneless” people to find jobs and housing and access social services that can help them become self-sufficient. Hundreds of people are using the voice mailboxes in Tarrant County. There are more than three dozen similar programs nationwide, but Tarrant County United Way is the first United Way to provide start-up funding for such a service.

Community Link is being offered by Catholic Charities. It provides the phone numbers and voice mail service to other local nonprofit organizations for them to distribute to their clients. The service enables homeless people, women escaping domestic violence and others to be contacted by potential employers, landlords, social workers, health care professionals, teachers and lawyers. Callers’ messages can be retrieved 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The voice mail system also enables social workers to distribute one message to multiple clients about job and health fairs that may help them. Nationally, more than 46,000 people without telephones had access to voice mail service in 2005.